Meet the four SAMRO scholarship finalists

Young, bursting with talent and poised to revitalise South African songwriting – meet the four composers competing in the 2010 SAMRO Overseas Scholarships Competition at the UJ Arts Centre on Saturday, 28 August 2010.

James Bassingthwaighte	Kingsley Buitendag
Keith Moss	Angie Mullins

Second International Composition Competition

There are many children who start learning  how to play the guitar, but few of them continue to practice as eagerly and enthusiastically as they do in the beginning. There are various reasons for it. Certainly one of them is lack of time to practice due to the time consuming work for school. Whatever the reasons may be, lecturers have to find a way to arouse the interest of their pupils so that the joy of making music will prevail. Here, chamber music represents an exceptional chance because it allows one to play meaningful and complete pieces in a group with only a few technical means.   With this in mind we had organized the first and second "Gitarrentage für Kinder im Saarland" 2009 and 2010. Due to the big success of the past events and the increasing demand even for participants who were beyond the age limit, we are proud to announce the "Dritte Gitarrentage für Kinder und Jugendliche im Saarland" (Third Days of the Guitar for children and teenagers), taking place from the 20th to the 23rd of April 2011.
 
In the context of this event, and on the basis of the demand for high quality compositions for guitar ensembles for children, we will host the  Second International Composition Competition “Gitarrentage für Kinder im Saarland”.

MUSIC ICONS TO JUDGE 2010 INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION (ISC)

The next World New Music Days festival takes place in Zagreb, Croatia from 7-17 April, 2011 and the theme of the festival will be Mirabilia Memorabilia. We are looking for works by South African composers to represent South Africa at the festival. The South African jury will select up to three pieces that will be sent to the International jury of the ISCM for consideration.
 
The jury will be chaired this year by Peter Klatzow. 
 
In addition to your score, we recommend the inclusion of recordings and programme notes with your application.
 

For further information about the festival and the categories of ensemble which will be considered, please visit www.iscm.org http://www.iscm.org  and http://www.mbz.hr/eng/

 
This call is open to all composers of South African nationality and there is no charge for submission of applications. We particularly welcome submissions by composers from designated groups. If you have not sent in a score before, now is the time!

  
Please send scores and recordings to: 

Prof. Peter Klatzow
Professor of Composition
South African College of Music,
Faculty of Humanities,
University of Cape Town
Rondebosch
7700 SOUTH AFRICA 

Or electronically to  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  (pdf scores preferred; Finale 2005 or Sibelius scores accepted)   

Please see below for accepted categories.

Don’t delay! Deadline for applications: Tuesday 20th July 2010

Categories: 

ROYAL VISITS…

Prof Mzilikazi Khumalo, Board Member of SAMRO & Nkwenkwezi Languza, Head of Sound Preservation:, National Film, Video & Sound Archives

In February this year Mr. Languza paid the SAMRO Music Archive a visit, to share with Prof Khumalo a very unique recording of VUKA, VUKA, DEBORA!  This recording was made on 1 March 1947 when the British Royal Family first visited South Africa. En route to Johannesburg, the Royal Family was entertained by a choir from the University of Fort Hare, conducted by Prof. D.D. T Jabavu. The song they sang, Vuka, Vuka, Debora!  was recorded by a BBC journalist who accompanied the entourage. Former Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan, became interested in the recording and alerted the Deputy National Archivist, Ms. Mandy Gilder. Nkwenkwezi Languza and other officials of the National Film, Video and Sound Archives made enquiries to a number of South African institutions including the Willem Cullen Library and the SABC. When this drew a blank, the British Library, EMI Archives (UK) and the BBC were contacted and finally with the assistance of Dr. Janet Topp Fargion (Curator: World and Traditional Music, British Library), obtained a copy from the BBC for their collection.

Incidentally, Prof. Khumalo also sang to the royal family (as a fifteen year old youngster) in the Fred Clarke Secondary School choir in Nancefield Soweto. The school choir was asked to line up along the streets in Orlando, where the royal entourage would pass!  

Composer of Vuka, Vuka, Debora!, John Knox Bokwe, grew up near Lovedale. He is also the composer of Plea from Africa, which was written in Scotland between 1900 and 1901 while he studied towards his Presbyterian ministry. He returned to South Africa and passed away in Lovedale in 1922. These two songs both appear in the SAMRO Scores publication, South Africa Sings Volume 1, which is obtainable from the Music Archive, SAMRO Endowment for the National Arts.

UNISA compositions by South African composers

Bongani Ndodana Breen		Peter Louis van Dijk
Paul Hanmer		Matthijs van Dijk

The Baltimore Sun (01-19-2010) wrote the following about a performance of the Ndodana-Breen work, by one of the UNISA candidates: Hans Kristian Goldstein.A cellist with a future: Hans Kristian Goldstein

Of course it's insane to predict any musician's career, but what the heck. I say that cellist Hans Kristian Goldstein, the Peabody student who won the 2009 Yale Gordon Competition at the conservatory, will make it. He seems to me to have everything it takes to develop a career -- not just the raw talent, but the keen artistic impulses.         Oh yes, the Norwegian player, barely into his 20s, also has some marketing assets, which can't be discounted in the era of the superficial -- boyishly handsome looks and a rather evocative name.               

Goldstein gave an impressive recital Sunday afternoon for the Music in the Great Hall series at Towson Unitarian; it also turned out to be a warm-up for a competition he has been accepted into in South Africa. That connection generated the sole contemporary item on the program, a brief, appealing, rhythmically propulsive romp by 35-year-old South African composer Bongani Ndona-Breen, "Jozi Dreamtime."

Composer Clare Loveday

SAMRO composer-member, Clare Loveday, recently clinched two overseas performances for her work Duodectet I  and II. This magnificent composition for 12 Saxophones (2 soprano, 4 alto, 2 tenor, 2 baritone, 2 bass) was selected for performance at the World New Music Days in Sydney, Australia. Clare was on the NMSA jury that chose the official South African submissions, and so entered her work as an individual (non-ISCM section). Duodectet I and II will be performed on May 3 at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and will be broadcast on ABC Classic FM. On May 6 a second performance of the work takes place at the Royal College of Music in London!

Surendran Reddy (1962-2010) by Prof Christine Lucia

Pianist-composer Surendran Reddy died on 22 January 2010 after a long illness, in Germany. He is survived by his parents Y.G. and Leela Reddy, his brother Rajen, and daughter Leela. After the cremation ceremony in Konstanz on 3 February Surendran’s ashes will be flown back to Durban where his family are holding a private ceremony. Later this month there will be a public celebration of his life and work in Durban.